Netanyahu says he supports freeing all hostages as well as ousting Hamas, making Gaza a non-threat

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

US President Donald Trump, right, meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, February 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
US President Donald Trump, right, meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, February 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Asked if he supports a deal that gets all the hostages out, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says: “I support getting all the hostages out and meeting all our war goals — that includes destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities and making sure Gaza never poses a threat to Israel again.”

He says he doesn’t have only one war goal, he has these three, and “we will achieve all three.”

US President Donald Trump says that it is “a horrible thing” that terrorists with blood on their hands are being released from prison as part of the deal. “I’ll never forget it. You can’t forget it. Some people want to put it out of their memory but we can never let that happen.”

Turning to October 7, he says it was “a horrible day” and that “a lot of people want to pretend it didn’t happen. It happened.”

As with the Holocaust, he says, people want to pretend it didn’t happen. “It’s the same mindset,” he says.

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